I need a new laptop

[kirschy]

Well that depends. Laptop hard drives tend to cost an arm and a leg. I saw a stick of 1 gb laptop ram sell for around $60 at Walmart last time I checked An external hard drive would cost more cash but like you said are good to have around.

Well the cost of the external drive would probably run me $100-$140 + the 1GB ram and the price balances out between the two models. The only advantage to that combo is that the HD is external which will be great for backing up my old laptops (yes, plural) and I'd probably get more space for my money.

Actually, depending on where you get it, you can get an external hard drive with 320-500 GB for less than $100.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148235
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822100037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822100023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822242009
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148341

If you're going to go that route then don't worry about the internal hard drive size as much. Just move all your data to an external drive.

[Ensign Janitor Tzap]

Yeah,
I thought you would like the A305 Toshiba.

I checked Crucial on the 4Gig 2 Modules upgrade.
{No Trade Ins}
It runs $56.00.
Note: You can replace only one of the modules{1Gig} with a 2Gig Module.
But Crucial is recommending that you replace both with a matched pair of Memory Modules.
To get the optimal performance out of your Laptop.

As for hard drives........
Internal Laptop drives get more expensive the larger the capacity.
But older IDE, or PATA drives are costing even more than SATA drives.
General Nano Systems currently shows 250Gig Drives at $109.00.
They currently have a sale on a desktop 3.5" drive.
1Terabite 3.5" SATA-II 7200rpm 32cache Hard Drives are only $119.00.

Yes,
I think having an External USB Drive would be an excellent Idea.


Signed: Ensign Janitor Tzap

[Teggy]

Placing this here as a reminder to myself. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 3600050051

[Teggy]

Achievement Unlocked: New Laptop

I got the deal you can see in the link above. I had to go to two Best Buys and I'm tired, but it's mine, printer too. The first BB near my place didn't have the $600 laptop sale. It had one for $100+ more because they added all this software that I didn't want. Then I went to the second Best Buy and found not only the laptop sans software, but the printer bundle. However, the in-store bundle was $650. When I showed the sales girl the online deal for $600, she got a manager to overide the price and give me the online bargain.

Go me. I got a $750+ laptop plus a printer all for $600.

As I got home, I felt like I was bringing home a new baby. His name is (appropriately) Walter. So now he's sitting at home while I'm at work. I'll start setting it up tonight.

[Teggy]

Oh the Walter drama! Just had to share the insane and long story while I digest lunch:

When I got home Friday, I bribed a work friend in IT to come over and set Walter up. When we turned it on, the screen was too dark to read. Nothing he did brightened it. Luckily, Best Buy was open till 10pm, so we brought it back. Geek Squad confirmed that it had a bad backlight. Customer service tells me just to exchange it. That's more easily said than done because the model sold like hotcakes on a cold Sunday morning.

So this jerkwad employee was being rather rude and unhelpful, but he tried to find me something "comparable" for the same price. Well now at $150 off, that wasn't going to happen. I knew what I wanted and I didn't like the idea of being screwed because they sold me a defective product.

My friend and I took the risk of trying a nearby store that might have some left. That's when I decided on plan B: If I can't exchange it, then I'd have them send it back to Toshiba for replacement. They couldn't just order it because it was "discontinued." At the second store, I was taken care of by a very friendly manager (who has the same tattoo as me) who sold me the store's demo model at 10% off. He also switched out the demo's battery with the new one on the laptop I had originally purchased. Geek Squad got it prepared and I was able to pick it up the next day. I was a little wary of it, but my friend and I looked it over and everything looks perfect aside from one scratch mark on the cover.

But I made sure to have them clean it first. Goodness knows how many people touched that before I did. Yeesh.

[Ensign Janitor Tzap]

That's to bad about the first Laptop.

But at least you were able to get it replaced.

What the *@$%#* is going on with the consumer electronics industry?

I just got in a DVD/VCR Recorder Comb Unit for repair, that is just barely 2 years old.
And the DVD Unit is shot on it already.
{The parts alone to repair it will run $240 dollars!}

This planned obsolescence thing is being taken to new extremes.


Signed: Ensign Janitor Tzap

[si1vergecko]

Ok I am rebooting this since it is clear that this laptop is dying. Keyboard probably could be fixed but I have been wanting to purchase a new one anyway. Namely Starcraft II and I want to play my recent games at decent specs. Looking at around $1000, at least 4 GB of RAM, at last 250 gb hard drive that is 7200 RPM and definably a dedicated video card thats at least 1 GB. Some brands I was thinking about looking into are Dell since it seems that the comps I worked with from them have worked well (and I believe they offer student discounts), IBuyPower since it seems you pay relatively lower for what you get, and some friends of mine said that ASUS is pretty good. Definably DON'T want another HP, I named this comp Icarus for a good reason.


Just a couple I looked at.
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebook ... 450-cto1~~
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Battalio ... g_Notebook

[Ensign Janitor Tzap]

Sorry I responded so late to this si1vergecko.
I've been kept rather busy for the last few days.

Well....
Take a look at this Lenovo{IBM} Thinkpad.
http://www.nanosys1.com/lt-sys-le-tp-28479xu.html
It meets or exceeds your spec's.
But it is a smaller LCD Display.

Here's CNET's Gaming Laptop Reviews.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4566-3121_7-0-2 ... mncol;page
The ones that are bellow $1000 are using slower Hard Drives, and smaller LCD Displays with lower resolution.
And slower Processors.


Signed: Ensign Janitor Tzap

[kirschy]

Sorry I responded so late to this si1vergecko. I've been kept rather busy for the last few days.

You aren't the only one. Besides I haven't been keeping up with laptops too much lately.

Ok I am rebooting this since it is clear that this laptop is dying. Keyboard probably could be fixed but I have been wanting to purchase a new one anyway. Namely Starcraft II and I want to play my recent games at decent specs. Looking at around $1000, at least 4 GB of RAM, at last 250 gb hard drive that is 7200 RPM and definably a dedicated video card thats at least 1 GB.

Dell's Studio 15/Studio 17 laptops seem to meet most of your requirements except the video card. The version on sale runs an integrated video card. And they're running a deal on them right now. You can get the Studio 17 laptop for around $750, before shipping (and tax maybe). However its possible, depending on the customizations you do, you could customize the computer and get a dedicated v-card. However that's going to up the price, probably to really close (and maybe slightly over) $1000 for the 17-inch display model.
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segt ... lid=405688

It looks like Gateway's NV56 would also meet most/all of your requirements depending on how you customize it.
http://www.gateway.com/systems/category/529598113.php

From Toshiba's gaming laptops, the Qosmio X505-Q860 looks like it meets all your requirements, except the price. Its going to run about $1100.
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/lap ... ultsMatrix

I'm sure HP/Compaq probably has something that meets your requirements, but given my past bad experience with HP laptops I won't recommend any of their products since I'm of the opinion you shouldn't need a lawyer to get a company to fix your laptop correctly and even then have it fail.

Tzap's already linked you to Lenovo's offerings.

[si1vergecko]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00352 ... d_i=507846

This is one I am giving consideration since it is marked down and it has USB 3.0 which is nice. Whats holding me back though is the relatively small resolution 1366 x 768 and though reviewed well seems some of the complaints I heard about this model seem pretty annoying since as the DVD drive model apparently has a high failure rate.

Also there are various models that I have looked at that do indeed look pretty nice but what is making me hesitant on those is that they are USB 2.0 I wonder how much longer it will be before we start seeing 3.0 becoming standard, which I am guessing is about a year.

Also quad core is always looking more and more attractive though there are certainly a lot of duo cores out there.

[Gunny]

A bit late, but I own an IBuypower laptop myself(Specs below), and other then it just being clogged with sh*t I put on there my self, I got it for under about a grand about a year ago. You should be able to get a GFX card with a 1GB of Mem no prob

If your willing to pay a bit more, then trying to get an laptop with an i7 quadcore is well worth it, IMO. USB 3.0, I wouldnt worry too much about right now, as it'll take a bit for things to catch up. And to get a high res, you'll have to simply buy a larger LCD screen that supports a higher native res.

[Teggy]

One thing I learned the hard way from Walter is that you need to be very aware of your video card. Turns out the one I have (an Intel Core or something) is simply incompatible with a lot of PC games. I can't even get the Final Fantasy XIV benchmark to run on Walter without crashing. No Mass Effect, no Dragon Age....*sigh* I just wanted to share my fail so you can learn from it.

[kirschy]

One thing I learned the hard way from Walter is that you need to be very aware of your video card. Turns out the one I have (an Intel Core or something) is simply incompatible with a lot of PC games. I can't even get the Final Fantasy XIV benchmark to run on Walter without crashing. No Mass Effect, no Dragon Age....*sigh* I just wanted to share my fail so you can learn from it.

An Intel Core Solo, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, etc... isn't your video card. Its your CPU/processor. If your computer doesn't have something that says Nvidea or ATI something or other card, the odds are you have an integrated video card which uses some of your main system memory to handle graphics processing instead of using its own dedicated memory.

Though you do make a good point Teggy. You do need to make sure your video card/CPU/RAM is a bit more than you think you'll need because unlike a desktop you can't easily upgrade these things at a later date.

[Ensign Janitor Tzap]

Yeah,
Many of the Laptops are not setup to do gaming, or multimedia recording and editing.
Unless you fork out the cash for a gaming Laptop, or one that is setup for Multimedia.

At least with a desktop system you have some upgrade options.
But most any System or Laptop you buy today will be out dated within 2 to 4 years.
That is, if your trying to keep up with the latest software.

That and old standards that were once set, are constantly being replaced.
EIDE has been replaced by SATA for CD/DVD/BD-ROM's and Hard Drives.
Old Mechanical Hard Drives are slowly being replaced by SSD-Hard Drives.{Solid State Device}
Serial and Parallel Ports have been replaced by USB II & III Ports.
The Floppy Disk has been replaced by the USB Thumb Drive, or Flash Card.
56K Modem is slowly being phased out for Wired/Wireless Ethernet connection.
CRT Monitor replaced by Flat Panel LCD Monitor.
SVGA standard being replaced by DVI standard.
Even the Keyboard and Mouse ports are being replaced by USB Ports.


Signed: Ensign Janitor Tzap

[si1vergecko]

If under graphics card it says intel then yeah it is an integrated card which draws from the RAM that is in the laptop instead of its own dedicated RAM, which is fine for most applications, until you get into gaming, video editing and some other stuff. I wanted at least 1 GB of memory for my laptop I am looking at simply because it can play all of the stuff I have now and should he decent for a couple years, namely past college.

[kirschy]

If under graphics card it says intel then yeah it is an integrated card which draws from the RAM that is in the laptop instead of its own dedicated RAM, which is fine for most applications, until you get into gaming, video editing and some other stuff. I wanted at least 1 GB of memory for my laptop I am looking at simply because it can play all of the stuff I have now and should he decent for a couple years, namely past college.

Actually Gecko, you probably need at least 2 GB of ram as a minimum for a laptop these days if you want it to give more than 2 years service. Vista and Windows 7 are usually a bit more memory intensive than XP is.

[si1vergecko]

The 1 gb of memory was for the graphics card more than anything else. I am planning on getting at least 4 gb of ram.

[kirschy]

The 1 gb of memory was for the graphics card more than anything else. I am planning on getting at least 4 gb of ram.

Ah... Sorry I misunderstood you then.

[si1vergecko]

Ok finally bit the bullet.

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Battalio ... ing_Laptop

Battalion 101 B5100M Gaming Laptop $996.55
Case Battalion 101 B5100M: 15.6" HD 1366x768 Widescreen LCD TFT Laptop w/eSATA port, Bluetooth (EDR), Fingerprint Reader, Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter - Original Metallic Black
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-520M Mobile Processor (2x 2.40GHz/3MB L3 Cache)
Memory: 4GB [2GB x 2] 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM [Laptop Memory] - Corsair or Major Brand
Video Card : Mobility DDR3 1GB NVIDIA GT 330M PCI-Express 3D Video [B5100M]
Primary Hard Drive: 320 GB 7200rpm Serial-ATA Super Slim Laptop Hard Drive
Optical Drive: 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [B5100M]
Flash Media Reader/Writer Built-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Laptop]
Sound Card: 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card: Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN [Laptop]
Fax Modem: Built-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem [Laptop]
Internal Wireless Network Adapter: Standard 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit
USB Accessories Built-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports + 1x USB 3.0 Port [Laptop]
Power Protection: None
Carrying Case Free Deluxe Carrying Case
Headset: None
Video Camera: Build-in 1.3 Mega Pixels Digital Web Video Camera
LCD Pixel Protection: None
Warranty: Standard Warranty Service - Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
Rush Service: Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days
Subtotal : $996.55
Tax : $0.00
Ground Shipping : $39.00
Total : $1,035.55

[Ensign Janitor Tzap]

Ok finally bit the bullet.

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Battalio ... ing_Laptop

Battalion 101 B5100M Gaming Laptop $996.55
Case Battalion 101 B5100M: 15.6" HD 1366x768 Widescreen LCD TFT Laptop w/eSATA port, Bluetooth (EDR), Fingerprint Reader, Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter - Original Metallic Black
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-520M Mobile Processor (2x 2.40GHz/3MB L3 Cache)
Memory: 4GB [2GB x 2] 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM [Laptop Memory] - Corsair or Major Brand
Video Card : Mobility DDR3 1GB NVIDIA GT 330M PCI-Express 3D Video [B5100M]
Primary Hard Drive: 320 GB 7200rpm Serial-ATA Super Slim Laptop Hard Drive
Optical Drive: 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [B5100M]
Flash Media Reader/Writer Built-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Laptop]
Sound Card: 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Network Card: Built-in 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN [Laptop]
Fax Modem: Built-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem [Laptop]
Internal Wireless Network Adapter: Standard 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit
USB Accessories Built-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports + 1x USB 3.0 Port [Laptop]
Power Protection: None
Carrying Case Free Deluxe Carrying Case
Headset: None
Video Camera: Build-in 1.3 Mega Pixels Digital Web Video Camera
LCD Pixel Protection: None
Warranty: Standard Warranty Service - Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support
Rush Service: Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days
Subtotal : $996.55
Tax : $0.00
Ground Shipping : $39.00
Total : $1,035.55

Coolness......

I only have one problem with it.
WHY WOULD YOU NEED A FINGERPRINT READER ON A LAPTOP?????
Are these some governmental leftovers that this company grabbed, and converted into a gaming Laptops?


Signed: Ensign Janitor Tzap